Links to old Forum for OpenDCT , Channels DVR and XMLTV

[Ugadata]

Some of these were already posted in another thread but sometimes they don't work.

OpenDCT: An open source digital cable tuner
https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread_t_62774.html?t=62774

CHANNELS DVR with Generic Pipe Capture (PLUTO TV as well)
https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread_t_66804.html?t=66804
NOTE: a copy of FFMPEG or CURL will be needed to get content from Channels thru OpenDCT into Sage.

Updated XMLTV Plugin with compile steps
https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread_t_66899.html?t=66899

To use Channels DVR with SageTV you need at least OpenDCT and a Channels Server. This is presuming that you already have a supported TV provider. Support for Channels DVR is somewhat thin for anyone Outside the USA.

For Channels TV Everywhere (TVE) you can get by with Schedules Direct for guide data.
I seem to remember Philo TV worked OK with Schedules Direct for guide data as well (but it was only during a trial period for testing - YMMV)

Pluto TV will need the XMLTV plugin setup in order to work.

[nyplayer]

For those of you who use Channels DVR m3u into SagetV ... I found out that using curl tuning is much faster along with consumer RAW in OPENDCT.

streaming_executable=curl -s http://192.168.50.66:8089/devices/ANY/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format=ts

[LoisGNS]

Where does a line like this go? (Sorry, I'm a total pre-noob with both Channels & OpenDCT, trying to compile info that would help me get started with them, so please excuse my cluelessness on this). Does this go into a Channels config file, an OpenDCT config file, or ??

[Ugadata]

This line (weather using Curl or FFMPEG ) goes in the OpenDCT config file (there is no editable config file for Channels).
I understand wanting to know what it is and what it is for, but your not there yet.

In this case, it is how OpenDCT is capturing a stream from a Channels Server.

[CptKirk-1701]

nyplayer, so from what you mentioned on the old forums on 10/16/21:

Replace this:

I made a change to your HTTP settings so that ChannelsDVr closes the stream immediately ... It also stops Channels DVR from transcoding the stream before SageTV gets it.

streaming_executable=c:\\Programs\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe -i http://192.168.99.70:8089/devices/ANY/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format=ts -f mpegts -codec:v copy -codec:a copy -

With this:

streaming_executable=curl -s http://192.168.99.70:8089/devices/ANY/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format=ts

I have everything working with Channels DVR and TVE. Really liking it so far.

[nyplayer]

this is what I use now .... Great you have it working.
streaming_executable=curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8089/devices/ANY/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format=ts&codec=copy

[LoisGNS]

What would the command be if you're using a Pluto playlist generated by something else? For example, I have been testing Pluto For Channels for Windows, and it generates .m3u files. I was able to use the XMLTV plugin to get the program guide (they also provide epg files), but can't yet play any of the videos shown. (I can play them with VLC and with NextPVR, so I know they essentially work - just not how to make them work with openDCT. I gather I have to do something with the streaming_executable setting, but what? Any other settings? Sage sees the m3u file as a tuner, but I can't seem to actually "tune".

[wayner9]

I would love to figure this out as well as not only would this work for Pluto, it would work for any IPTV video stream since that is what Pluto is. There are tons of free IPTV channels. like Pluto plus Samsung, Roku, Tubi, and then there is the more pirated type of stuff.

Github has m3u platlists for these at https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv/tree/master/streams - for example https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv/blob/master/streams/us_tubi.m3u is the US Tubi channels

[Ugadata]

I don't disagree with Your sentiments but doing this directly with Sage or through OpenDCT (at least currently) seems problematic.

Yeah, OpenDCT was designed to not only connect with cable card devices but also for IP streams (generic pipe).

The thing is some of what your wanting to do has already been done In Channels or is being worked on now. Sometimes it isn't as perfect as one would like but when has the TV/Movie/Cable/broadcasting, etc industry ever made it easy for DIYers at home to connect to there products. We always have hoops to jump through. (oops, apologize for ranting)

[wayner9]

I have to take the time to work through all of that. In addition to Channels there are other tools related to this like TVHeadEnd, Dispatcharr, etc. Some of this facilitate playlist creation and guide data.

Any idea how robust these methods are to hiccups in the stream. One issue that I have seen with IPTV is that a slight glitch tends to cause the entire recording to fail. SageTV was always pretty robust. If you had issues with the OTA feed it would continue, possibly creating a new file. Which is why I have some football game recordings with 100+ files.

I have played around with some of this in Jellyfin but I haven't yet worked through the entire process for SageTV

[Ugadata]

@LoisGNS :The links at the top of this thread to the old forum work. I tried the dawzee link and it didn't work and I don't know where it is in the old forum.

I felt further discussion of OpenDCT and its configuration shouldn't be in the thread about PrismCast. There is a relationship but they are different and it could make the PrismCast thread more confusing than needed.

From @LoisGNS
Please write up a description of what you find works for you. It would be great to have some sort of tutorial of sorts for how to get this up & running. My main Sage server is running Windows 8.1, and according to Channels, they support Win 10 and up. I have a secondary server (mostly devoted to PlayOn) that runs Win10 and so could be used for Channels. Integrating with Sage via OpenDCT would be a plus if I could make head or tail out of OpenDCT. For that, I've found some stuff from the old forum, but it's still pretty opaque - primarily in the discussion of opendct.properties. There's a list of what they're supposed to do, but how those work is inadequately explained._

My apologies, I simply don't like writing up documentation . Also, there a lot I can't explain - I have a "Monkey See, Monkey Do" way of learning. That stated, it doesn't mean I won't do what I can to help you get this working. This thread can/may become some of that documentation. I also apologize if I over explain or tell you things you already know (one reason I don't like writing up documentation).

Yes, at least Windows 10. It removes any issues of an unsupported OS from causing problems. (FWIW - when I was first playing with OpenDCT and Channels on Windows 7- I got things working but they were sometimes less than desired -especially with PlutoTV. Once I found out that W7 wasn't supported by Channels anymore and did some testing with Channels on W10, it all started working as expected.)

I run Sage, OpenDCT, and Channels all on the same machine but they don't have to be, they can all be on a different machines (they would be referenced by ip address and port - 192.168.3.3:8089 example only )

### ### ### >These are particularly unclear to me:
• upnp.service.configuration.ignore_interfaces_csv=
o Specify the name of interfaces in a comma delimited list of network interfaces as they are named by Java to be ignored when UPnP is performing discovery.
o Ex. upnp.service.configuration.ignore_interfaces_csv=eth2,eth5

Both of these are blank in my OpenDCT config file. Basically, they are a way of telling OpenDCT to ignore some incoming (specifically UPnP) Network traffic. I will go as far as stating these are for certain specialized setups.

• upnp.service.configuration.ignore_local_ip_csv=
o Specify the IP addresses of local interfaces in a comma delimited list to be ignored when UPnP is performing discovery.
o Ex. upnp.service.configuration.ignore_local_ip_csv=10.0.0.21,192.168.1.23
`
In the example for the first one, what are "eth2, eth5" - and how do you know what they are, why they should be ignored, etc.?
In the example for the second one, how do you know which local IPs should be ignored?

The first config line is referring to physical Interface on the local machine/device. When I see eth(n), (eth or ethernet) it is referring to a port on a switch. In this case I suspect it could be referring to a machine with more than 1 Network card (NIC).

The second would allow ignoring specific ip addresses for UPnP input.

Somtimes the UPnP automagic configuration just doesn't work very well and becomes a pain.

EX - 2 Sage servers setups, one for production and one for test. Each setup also has it's own cable card tuner (DCT -> Digital Cable Tuner) to work with. Both of these systems are visible to each other on the network.
Both OpenDCT instances will be able to see and detect the 2 Cable tuners (each Sage instance will also be able to detect both OpenDCT instances). I suspect one could use the ignore ip address line to ignore one of the cable tuners so it won't add confusion to the OpenDCT config file. I was using cable tuners for this but some of the OTA HDHR devices will also show up in OpenDCT, these to could be ignored by IP address.

I may be wrong about these but that is how I view there use.

Then, if/when you get OpenDCT up & running, what can be done with it before starting to get Channels up & running?

More generally, the info I've saved includes links to the old forum, e.g. "If you're having trouble getting started, many people have found this post by Daweeze very helpful."

I remember a while back there was info on how to convert those URLs to ones that will still work - but I don't remember what the needed >transformation was.

[LoisGNS]

Thanks for the additional clarification and links.

As to what I do and don't know: I don't know squat about OpenDCT or Channels. I've been a Sage user since 2009, but other than using several plugins, configuring my servers via the menus, & tweaking the sage properties files as needed, I haven't gotten into its innards at all. So please, when referencing any configuration steps, the more explicit detail the better - like "put the following line (adjusted as necessary for proper IP address, etc.) into the file [path/filename]" and "to locate the correct [whatever info needs to go into a properties line] look here:"

I don't have a cable card, and don't think they're available anymore, but do have an ancient HDHR (it gets 2 OTA ATSC 1.0 signals). I also have assorted USB and PC-card ATSC and NTSC (through a Comcast DTA box and USBUIRT) tuners.

I like that Channels, Sage, and OpenDCT could all be on different systems, since I currently have a main Sage Server (on Windows 8.1), a secondary Sage Server, mostly for testing purposes, on Windows 10 pro, which also is my main PlayOn server, my daily driver PC with Client and PlaceShifter installed, and a work-in-progress Windows 11 box, which I intend to be the successor to my current main PlayOn server if PO starts requiring Windows 11. So I have choices where to try to set various things up.

I've seen the word "curl" numerous times, but have no idea what it does or what it's for. It apparently exists on my PC, though, and the Almighty Google found some basic descriptions. I also have FFMPEG and use it for various things - even understand some of the arguments to feed to it.

I love to write documentation, so if a bunch of us can figure this stuff out together, I'd be glad to write it up to share. At the moment, I'm trying to wrap my head around what each of Channels, OpenDCT, PrismCast, and XMLTV are good for. Channels is somewhat explained on their site, but the rest are mysteries to me. The first post about XMLTV in the old forum (thanks for the link) is about compiling it Docker, and references a "sudo" command, which does not appear to be available on my system. So that's probably the most mysterious, followed closely by OpenDCT and PrismCast.

[Ugadata]

OpenDCT is for capturing network streams. Generally speaking, OpenDCT is only going to find or see Network Attached Tuners. Any internal or usb devices are not going to be seen by OpenDCT.

There is no need for a Docker to run any of this, unless you want to.

I no longer have a cable card tuner (in use). I now have a subscription to DirectV Stream and use OpenDCT to capture a stream from Channels (using TVE).

Although the purpose (at the time) for OpenDCT was to allow Sage to see and work with a cable card tuner, It was also designed to work with a "GENERIC PIPE" to capture whatever network streams maybe available.

From what I remember, for cable setups there wasn't much need to edit the OpenDCT config file. OpenDCT just found them and then Sage was able to see them also (there was a need to make an edit in the Sage Properties file to enable Network Tuner discovery).

It just so happens that some of the Silicon Dust OTA HDHR tuners are also detected by OpenDCT. It may be a good place for you to start working with OpenDCT. After that, the next step would be getting connected to Channels.

[LoisGNS]

On my test server (Windows 10) I installed OpendCT. The installation directions were clear enough, but can't seem to configure it, even to make use my ancient HDHR device. While Sage is recognizing it (as 127.0.0.1: 9000), when I try to preview the channels (lineup copied from the non-openDCT version of the same tuner), I select a knowkn-working channel. Signal strength is shown as 100%, but the preview never starts "loading Preview. Please wait..." And I've waited quite a while in case it's just slow. With the same tuner not attached to OpenDCT, it previews the same channel no problem

I thought I might have found & fixed the problem when I noticed that Sage thought the OpenDCT version of the tuner was QAM and cable, when it is in fact ATSC. I didn't find a way to change that in the interface, but changed it in sage.properties & when I restarted SageServer & Sage, it now displayed as ATSC, and in the interface I was able to correct cable to antenna. But that didn't fix the problem; the behavior stayed the same.

So maybe something needs to be adjusted in the openDCT properties - but what?

Also, since I really don't need OpenDCT to deal with the HDHR, but was testing it because that was the only thing it recognized, I'm looking for anything else I can point it at - and how to do so. I'm not ready to try Channels yet, since once I do the 30-day clock will start ticking before I have to pay them, so I was hoping to get other components working first. Is there any other readily available source I could point it at? I do have PlayOn, for example, and maybe there are some free streams out in the wilderness it could look at?

[Ugadata]

I may have addressed some of the questions brought up in this post in the previous post above.

Although Sage can work directly with the SD OTA tuners, it could be a helpful learning experience for OpenDCT (and Channels) to how Sage can work with a tuner throgh OpenDCT.

Below is a segment of my OpenDCT config file. This is showing how OpenDCT configures a tuner it sees directly. In my case it is an HDHomeRun HDFX-4K tuner. You should see whatever tuner it is you have.

I highlighted the tuner name. I circled in red, the lines needed for setting up an individual tuner an how to know where they start and where they end.

I include this more for a reference than any need to make changes to your OpenDCT config file. FWIW - although these lines are in my OpenDCT config file - this isn't how I get the stream from the HDHR tuner into Sage. I am also not using a native connection to Sage.

I have Channels controlling the HDHR OTA tuner. Please don't let the following confuse you. I again include it for reference only and becuase in another post you asked where a certain line would be used. In that case it was a using the Curl command. In my example it is using FFMPEG. Note that the FFMPEG command line is truncated.

Configuring OpenDCT for use with Channels (using a generic-pipe) is more manual. OpenDCT can't automagically configure the generic-pipe as it can with a Physical Network Tuner.

For give Me, if I am trying to direct how/what you are trying to learn. But it helps to crawl before walking and then running.
Eventually, some light bulbs should start going off.

The following is how my HDHR OTA tuners show up in Sage ( these are the configured sources/tuners.) and these are from Channels.

The following shows the HDHR tuners that were detected by OpenDCT and waiting (?) to be configured.
FWIW - if you don't know, when you see 127.0.0.1 as the ip address, it is a way of referring to the LocalHost or Local Machine.
I run Sage, OpenDCT, and Channels on the same machine.

By allowing Channels to control the OTA HDHR tuner, I don't need to install the SiliconDust software anymore. It has been fixed but there was a time you needed the SD HR software to config the HDHR device for the BDA - Channels doesn't care and neither will Sage when capturing through Channels (and OpenDCT).

If I need to update the firmware or do a scan for channels, I use the IP address of the HDHR device and use the devices web pages for any maintenance.

[Ugadata]

thought I might have found & fixed the problem when I noticed that Sage thought the OpenDCT version of the tuner was QAM and cable, when it is in fact ATSC. I didn't find a way to change that in the interface, but changed it in sage.properties & when I restarted SageServer & Sage, it now displayed as ATSC, and in the interface I was able to correct cable to antenna. But that didn't fix the problem; the behavior stayed the same.

So maybe something needs to be adjusted in the openDCT properties - but what?

OK, at first I didn't think you needed to make any changes to the OpenDCT config file but maybe you do.
_

The next 2 lines are an afterthought, while I was in the middle of this post.
*** referring to the QAM/Cable issue. Maybe the HDHR device needs to be changed to ATSC?
*** it is possible that OpenDCT isn't detecting the HDHR correctly becuase the device is set to QAM/Cable.

This change can be done in the HDHR software or by using a web browser to go directly to the device
You can also update the firmawre, if you feel the need
_

When trying to edit the OpenDCT config file, just like editing the Sage Properties file, OpenDCT needs to be shutdown.
As part of the OpenDCT install a Start Menu folder is created and it has commands to start and stop the OpenDCT service.
You can also use the SERVICES.MSC to open the Services applet and start and stop it that way.

It should be noted that OpenDCT service needs to be started before Sage (or Sage Service) is started. That means the Sage and/or the Sage Service needs to be shutdown when editing the OpenDCT config file.

[LoisGNS]

@Ugadata ,
Thanks for y our additional help.

Definitely glad not to have to use Docker, since I don’t understand it.
My tuners are detected by OpenDCT so far as I can tell. Here is my HDHR shows two "device inputs", each as Digital Antenna.

Sage sees them as at 127.0.0.1 via OpenDCT. I am pretty sure they are the ancient “Dual” model, HDHR-US. I’ve had them a few years and am pretty sure I got them from someone on the Sage forums as part of a bundle for little or no $ beyond shipping cost.

It also sees the same tuners without the 127, which I believe is the “native” Sage support, since I’ve used the HDHR tuners with this server before. The Native ones show the expected channel previews, the same tuners newly detected by OpenDCT as 127… tell me the channel is strong but fail to preview it (the preview window just stalls out).

Network Tuner discovery had already been on, so I didn’t need to change sage.properties.

My HDHRs are old enough that I’m not sure they have web pages. (If they did, where would I find them?)

My OpenDCT config file is similar to yours – different tuner-ids and last_channel, of course, but the rest matches. There is no line for streaming_executable. Is it only used when connecting to Channels?

You mention a generic pipe. What is that & when is it used?

My Sage setup display, showing my HDHRs both as regular Sage tuners and as OpenDCT (i.e. on 127.0.9.1:9000.)

I did shut down both Sage and OpenDCT servers before editing either of the config files. I had to remove and re-add it before Sage was able to see it as ATSC rather than QAM. Nonetheless, the preview still fails for both of the OpenDCT-referenced tuners even though it claims to see a 100% signal, and succeeds for the two native ones (same physical device). For that reason I wonder if either the device is too old for OpenDCT to handle or whether some additional configuration is needed to enable Sage to see the preview. I even tried removing one of the native Tuners from Sage in case having two versions of the same tuner was confusing things. Nope, the OpenDCT-recognized version still won't display a preview.

This makes me wonder if there’s anything else I can do to test OpenDCT before trying to set up Channels; that is, something I might already have (maybe connected with PlayOn) or be able to find/create.

[Ugadata]

is this one of the white box HDHR? I have one but unfortunately, I no longer have a power supply for it.

To access the device directly - open a browser and enter the IP address of the HDHR. You may be right, I can't remember if I ever used a browser with the really old HDHR.

It is somewhat expected, when using OpenDCT, that the HDHR device will show up more than once. Sage doesn't realize these are different devices.

If possible, maybe if you remove (delete) the Native tuners in Sage and just leave the 2 OpenDCT tuners configured?
This only needs to be done in the Sage program. I have a suspicion that have the same tuner configured twice, within Sage, may be causing an issue. There is no need to edit either OpenDCT or Sage property files. I have never had a single device configured in Sage more than one way (I hope that made sense?).

Since OpenDCT can see the HDHR tuner, I would think it should be able to use it. But maybe not.

In this case, the streaming executable line is not used for the SD HDHR tuners (cabe card or OTA). There is nothing else to config for the tuners that OpenDCT can detect and setup on its own.

Generic_Pipe is just another way to capture a stream. The streaming_executable line is how one would tell OpenDCT what stream to look for and attempt to capture. This how OpenDCT can be configured to capture a stream from ChannelsDVR or from an HDMI Network encoder device. This type of setup requires a bit more manual configuring.

On a different note, Channels DVR is real easy to setup and use on its own. The downside is it's not free. There is a 1 month trial period but you need to sign-up and pay first, they just don't charge for the first month. The cost is $8 per month or $80 per year.

[LoisGNS]

Yes, the HDHR is a white box. I can't find an IP address for it. I Googled the subject and all of the suggestions I found did not work. I wonder if my HDHR even has an IP address. Nothing is mentioned in the Silicon Dust app.

I deleted the native tuners from Sage and it made no difference, so I restored them. I have played with NextPVR and it sees the tuners and can play through them. I wondered if it might be interfering, so I went to task manager and end-tasked it, but that made no difference either. I also edited the Services control so that its startup is manual. I'm not using it for anything currently, so no need for it to start up all the time. It seems likely that OpenDCT doesn't support my old HDHR. Maybe I should try submitting an issue on its Github page, though - if it's still a live project.

I wouldn't mind the $8/month or $80/year fee for Channels if it turned out to be useful; just trying to figure out if that's the case before I spring for it. The use-case would be if I needed to move from my current ATSC tuners that I use with Sage to HDHR's ATSC3 tuners, but that would only make sense if the DRM gets sorted out. Or I'd need a way to add additional cable tuners that Sage can control.

For channels, since the stations I care about aren't in TVE, I'd have to see if PrismCast or something similar could be made to work. Having seen KryptoNyte-Sage's post from earlier today, that seems to be in doubt, but I'll see what else develops there.

[Ugadata]

FWIW - Your HDHR does have an IP address. It is most likely assigned an IP by the DHCP server in your Router/Firewall/Modem.
To find it you can connect and log-in to your router, Find the DHCP leases and look for the IP address associated with MAC address 101214BE. These old HDHRs do have a web page but it isn't much and not very useful.

Ok, I was able to find a power supply for my HDHR Dual. I had similar results to Yours. OpenDCT can see it and it can be configured in Sage but it can tune anything. I will have to agree these original OTA HDHR devices are not going to work with OpenDCT (they also won't work with Channels). The older models are no longer supported by SiliconDust. OpenDCT doesn't really have any support anymore either and even less for unsupported devices.

Technically Channels does have a 1 month free trial, You just need to make sure you cancel the subscription before the first month is up.

PrimCast is very, very new and it was developed on a Mac. The developer says it might work on Linux and or Windows, but isn't promising anything nor is He going to put much effort in that direction.

Are you aware of PlutoTV? it is a streaming site for tons of syndicated TV shows. It is free and is located at pluto.tv on the web. Using ChannelsDVR, PlutoTV can be integrated into Sage. I will admit I don't really watch much of what on PlutoTV but I currently have 407 channels.

[wayner9]

The way that this is capturing PlutoTV is basically capturing IPTV, is it not? So if you get this methodology working then you should be able to capture any IPTV stream. I know that IPTV has "pirate" implications but there are lots of free TV channels, Pluto being one example, so there shouldn't be an issue about discussing this, just like people talk about playing ripped DVDs.

[Ugadata]

streaming_executable=curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8089/devices/ANY/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format=ts&codec=copy

@LoisGNS - Referencing the above command; It should work with ANY source you have in Channels.

Admittedly, I don't completely understand the entire command line but I understand enough to modify some of it.

It presumes you have a copy of CURL on your machine (in this case, since I don't see a reference to "C:<any folder>", I presume they modified the Environment Variable - PATH command.).

Based on the IP OpenDCT and Channels are running on the same machine.

The "ANY" reference is to your sources in Channels. The "ANY" can be replaced by the individual source in Channels which can be found in Channels under Sources > Manage > Manage Lineup. At the top of that page is the source reference in betwwee the ( ).

FWIW:
When I started working with OpenDCT to Channels, I used FFPEG (and I still use it). I tried CURL but I had issues with A/V sync issues. In general what I stated above is going to be the same regardless if You use FFMPEG or CURL.

I generally put FFMPEG or CURL directly off the C: drive (C:\ffmpeg or C:\curl) - less typing in the command line.
You will need to reference the complete path to the commands executable file.

streaming_executable=c\:\\\\ffmpeg\\bin\\ffmpeg.exe -i "http\://127.0.0.1\:8089/devices/M3U-Pluto4Channels/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format\=hls" -c copy -f mpegts -

Note: this line will only work with my PlutoTV source (it won't work with my DirecTV or HDHR Flex4K source in Channels).
Also note the "slashing" for the FFMPEG command (it would be similar for CURL)

NOTE: Edited the 2 lines for better clarification and typos

[wayner9]

Presumably you are talking about Windows here, rather than Unraid or other variants of Linux, correct?

[Ugadata]

Yes, I do use Windows and some of the general suggestions would be for Windows, although I think the underlying idea would be the same in Linux.

the OpenDCT command I think would about the same. The path to the executable would look a bit different (? maybe?) . The rest should be the same( I would expect - but I don't use Linux or docker)

[LoisGNS]

I'm using Windows as well, but not (at least currently) with Channels. This is the URL I get from Pluto For Channels:
http://192.168.2.106:7777/pluto/all/playlist.m3u
and
http://192.168.2.106:7777/pluto/epg/all/epg-all.xml for the epg. I have the epg portion working in Sage with XMLTV.

I think I tried something like your string without success - possibly because I'm not using Channels. Which parts should I modify for my current setup (which works great in NextPVR).

[Ugadata]

Without some programming (perhaps a plug-in?) , Sage doesn't know what to do with an M3U playlist.

Channels, on the hand, does know what to do with M3U playlists and Sage (through OpenDCT) can can talk to Channels.

[LoisGNS]

Thanks for that explanation. I'll eventually try channels when I can make some time to give it a whirl.

[LoisGNS]

@KryptoNyte-Sage
Thanks for your note in the Channels forum. I am getting closer to setting up channels, and would be interested in how to then bring it into Sage. I will be running Channels (& Prismcast, I hope) on a separate (Windows 11) box from my Sage server, since most of the Channels goodies seem to require Docker (which scares the whatever out of me and with which I have had little luck - just getting it set up required a lengthy conversation with an AI), which can't run on the OS used by my main Sage server (Win 8). They are both on the same LAN, however, and I routinely remote-in to various machines from my daily driver. I found a thread in the old Sage forum (https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread_t_66804.html?t=66804) but it says "The following assumes you have opendct installed and configured for generic pipe capture the way ENE outlines at the start. of this thread:

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?p=597001&postcount=1." Of course, I can't find that thread directly, but found this one (which I did find): https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread_t_62774.html?t=62774, which might be relevant. But looking at the threads, it's hard to sort out what actually would work.

Thanks for any guidance!

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

I will try to write something up over this coming weekend (I'm running on Win 10). Other than Prismcast, what other tuners do you plan to setup for Channels DVR? What streaming service are you wanting to integrate (YoutubeTV, DirecTV Stream, etc.).

[LoisGNS]

I will be trying to use Prismcast to talk to Xfinity, which is my cable provider. I am al so looking at the FAST source aggregator to bring in stuff from Plex, Tubi, Pluto, etc. Ideally, I'd pull it all into Sage, starting with a test on my test server, which does have OpenDCT installed (but not actually doing anything), then if it goes well, copying the setup to my main server. Channels will live on yet another box (main server is on Win 8; test server Win10, prospective Channels/prismcast box: Win 11. Since apparently most of the more useful Channels addons require Docker, those can't live on my main Sage box because it won't support Docker.

I hope these can work together while on different physical machines in the same network. It occurred to me to think about updating my main server to Windows 10, but I'd need to do a lot of backup first, plus find a time when the server can be down long enough for an update-in-place to happen, or for everything to get restored from the backups if it doesn't work.

[LoisGNS]

I now have Prismcast working well in Channels, along with the FAST source aggregator (way too many channels, but dumped the least interesting ones). I put a Sage installation on the same machine where Channels lives - primarily for trying to get Open DCT to work with Channels, and then probably moving the opendct.properties to the main server, probably needing to update ip addresses from 127.... to 192.. but ideally nothing much else.

But for the moment, I can't get Open DCT configured to use Channels. I edited this line:
generic.http.device_names_csv=channels

then ran as console, but the only sagetv.device listings are for my HDHR. So I assume there's something else I need to add to the .properties file, but I have no idea what that should be. Also, should I add just one "channels" tuner, or one for each defined source? The old forum has a lot of discussion of this, that, or the other line in a .properties file for finetuning, but they're not helpful (at least to me) in just trying to get things started in the first place.

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

In the meantime, I'll mention that I've managed to avoid docker stuff, at least for now. I have Prismcast installed on native Windows (with node.js). I see all the great activity on FAST, just not real interested as the 200+ channels that I already have with other sources are more than I can actually make sense out of in the guide as it is.

[LoisGNS]

Yes, I'm getting better results with native installation, and even found instructions to start as a service. I can log into Xfinity, but when I try to paste m3u links into vlc for testing, I get blank screens. I may just have to bite the bullet & set up Channels itself, to see if it works that way. A couple days ago I was able to see videos playing in a Chrome window; that isn't working any more, and I don't know what changed. I see lots of error messages in the logs, but can't make much sense of them other than several that say "stream setup failed." and "window resize failed." It seems to want to create a tiny browser window - so small that I can't execute a login, so I enlarge it, but I think it's complaining about that.

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

Lois, are you actually running Channels DVR at this point? Are you setup in Channels DVR to receive all the native Xfinity TVE channels already (this is not all Xfinity channels you subscribe to, but the ones currently available via TVE)? I only use the more exotic options (Prismcast and the likes) for stuff that I subscribe to, but don't get with native Channels DVR TVE. TVE still provides things like closed captions which are vitally important to some folks, where the more exotic options don't.

In the Prismcast intro thread over in the Channels DVR forum, did you search the entire thread for Xfinity? Have you considered abandoning Xfinity for something that seems to be more universally adaptable these days, like YoutubeTV? I don't want to sound like a saleperson for s specific process or service, but I have found that aligning my paid services with what the developers are interested in at this time seems to yield the best results.

[LoisGNS]

I just set it up tonight and am exploring. I have my HDHR and my TVE set up and they work as they should. I added the FAST channels extension (via Docker & Portainer - have I mentioned how much I loath Docker?), and have them working, plus a Windows client. I uninstalled/reinstalled Prismcast, rebooted yet again, and am now getting better results. Watched few channels and have just started a test recording on one of therm. I have recordings going to a folder on my main Sage server.

The problem with other sources, vs Xfinity is they don't have all the channels I want. Part of what I'm trying to do is future-proof myself against ATSC 3 encryption. Right now I can get my locals just fine via my ATSC 1 antenna & various tuners in Sage, and my cable channels via USBUIRT and 2 Xfinity DTA adapters. It seems that Xfinity is the only source of all the regional PBS stations, only some of which I can currently get OTA. I did look at Youtube TV and others, and they just don't have the needed channels.

I can't seem to get automatic run-as-service working, either. I found something in the Channels playground forum, and followed the instructions, but the service doesn't start up. I tried starting it manually ("prismcast service start", and it said it started successfully, but "prismcast service status" reports that it's installed but not running, and looking through the list of services on my PC, it isn't there. It may be easier just to set up a startup batch file or something like that rather than fighting with the start-as-service issue.

It's hard to remember if the learning curve was similar when I first started using Sage in 2009...

[Ugadata]

I now have Prismcast working well in Channels, along with the FAST source aggregator (way too many channels, but dumped the least interesting ones). I put a Sage installation on the same machine where Channels lives - primarily for trying to get Open DCT to work with Channels, and then probably moving the opendct.properties to the main server, probably needing to update ip addresses from 127.... to 192.. but ideally nothing much else.

But for the moment, I can't get Open DCT configured to use Channels. I edited this line: hannels

then ran as console, but the only sagetv.device listings are for my HDHR. So I assume there's something else I need to add to the .properties file, but I have no idea what that should be. Also, should I add just one "channels" tuner, or one for each defined source? The old forum has a lot of discussion of this, that, or the other line in a .properties file for finetuning, but they're not helpful (at least to me) in just trying to get things started in the first place.

@LoisGNS
That was the wrong line to edit. The line you want is:
generic.pipe.device_names_csv=

You can name them anything you want. I would suggest adding more than one, something like:

generic.pipe.device_names_csv=ch1,ch2,ch3, etc (I like to keep it short, makes for better viewing in Sage when looking at the tuner scheduling)

I suspect you will need more than one tuner regardless if you reference them all as 'channels' or individually.

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

example of data in opendct.properties file (the .241 IP address is the server running ChannelsDVR and all sources), stop OpenDCT before making these changes:

generic.pipe.device_names_csv=SpectrumTVE1,SpectrumTVE2,SpectrumTVE3,SpectrumTVE4,SpectrumTVE5,SpectrumTVE6,YoutubeTVE1,YoutubeTVE2,YoutubeTVE3,YoutubeTVE4,YoutubeTVE5,YoutubeTVE6,Philo1,Philo2,Philo3,Philo4,Philo5,Philo6,FireTV,PrismCast1,PrismCast2,PrismCast3,PrismCast4,Roku1,Roku2,Roku3,Roku4,ADB1,ADB2,ADB3,ADB4

Once you have made these changes, restart OpenDCT (console or service) and run for, say 3 minutes, then stop it again. It will add the lines below to the properties file, where you can modify with your specific parameters. The only thing that I changed here was adding the streaming executable path, your last channel number might be blank the first time around.

sagetv.device.1590952977.consumer=opendct.consumer.DynamicConsumerImpl
sagetv.device.1590952977.custom_channels=
sagetv.device.1590952977.delay_to_wait_after_tuning=0
sagetv.device.1590952977.device_name=YoutubeTVE1
sagetv.device.1590952977.encoder_listen_port=9000
sagetv.device.1590952977.encoder_merit=0
sagetv.device.1590952977.encoder_pool=generic_pipe
sagetv.device.1590952977.exclusive_server_address=
sagetv.device.1590952977.fast_network_encoder_switch=true
sagetv.device.1590952977.last_channel=6090
sagetv.device.1590952977.stopping_executable=
sagetv.device.1590952977.streaming_executable=C:/ffmpeg/bin/ffmpeg.exe -i http://192.168.254.241:8089/devices/TVE-YouTubeTV/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format=ts -c copy -f mpegts -

<EDIT: Maybe someone can jog my memory here, I thought I had installed a plugin to use xmltv based on the stuff below, but I can't recall any more.>

Example of xmltv.properties file contents:
configurations=xmltv_CDVRphilo.properties,xmltv_CDVRyoutubetv.properties,xmltv_CDVRprismcast.properties,xmltv_CDVRRoku.properties,xmltv_CDVRadb.properties

Directory with xmltv files:

Example xmltv_CDVRyoutubetv.properties file contents (the only thing I modified was the configurations, provider.name, provider ID,and path to xmltv.files):
configurations=CDVRyoutubetve
provider.name=CDVRyoutubetve
provider.id=301 [note to user, enumerate this number for custom xmltv file, don't include text in brackets]
xmltv.files=http://192.168.254.241:8089/devices/TVE-YouTubeTV/guide/xmltv?duration=1209600
xmltv.channel.display-name.ShortNameIndex=2
xmltv.channel.display-name.LongNameIndex=1
xmltv.channel.NumberTag=lcn
xmltv.channel.NumberTagIndex=1
xmltv.channel.IconDownload=true
title.add.year=false
episode.name.add.episode.number=false

Additional notes:

1. Be sure to shut down all services/instances of SageTV and OpenDCT when making changes to these files, or the changes won't take.
2. This address: http://192.168.254.241:8089/devices from any computer on the LAN showed me how the source names are presented in Channels DVR, and the syntax in that line in the respective XML file has to be identical to what you find in 'devices'. In the example above, it was 'TVE-YouTubeTV'
3. After getting all the background files configured, restart OpenDCT, then SageTV (service), and go into add a new source. The tuner name that you gave in the opendct.properties files should appear in the list when 'adding', scrolling down.
4. When selecting guide info, tell Sage that you have your own XML data to add, and when asked, select the appropriate XML source in the list.

[LoisGNS]

Ok, I'm going to give this a try. Thanks for the tips. I have some questions:

I have so far entered the generic pipe names to correspond to my Channels sources, one or more per source. I'm assuming that Sage will allow one recording at a time for each source, so if I might want to simultaneously record multiple channels from, say, PrismCast, I should enter a number of names based on how many I might want to record at the same time?

After that my step is to run as console for a while, then reopen .properties & start adding info for each source - right?

In the properties for each device, the things that look variable are:
.device_name (of course: is this based on the device name shown in the generic pipe line or the one shown via http:... /devices? From your example, it looks like the former, and it's only the xmltv entries that need the name shown in /devices.)
merit (should I/can I give different merits to different "tuners" ?
Last_channel - I guess that should match the last channel number used in Channels for a given source?
ffmpeg location - should check & verify where mine is located - should that be on the server box or on whatever box is running Sage (once I get this sorted out, they will be on different boxes; if I'm running Sage from Box 1 and Channels is on Box 2, would I need to reference Box 2's IP address to find ffmpeg (that is, if ffmpeg means the one on the Channels box).)

In your xmltv example:
It looks like I need a separate XMLTv Properties files for each tuner defined - correct?
You say to "enumerate" the provider.id. Do you mean the first tuner defined would be 301, the 2nd 302, etc.? Are these numbers arbitrary, and is there any value to using 100-series for TVE, 200-series for Prismcast, etc. - or do they simply need to be different numbers from each other?

Should I always use ShortNameIndex = 1 and LongNameIndex=1, channel.number.tagIndex=1, or something that might be tuner-specific? (What do these mean?)
I assume that episode.name.add.episode.number=false is a preference, and I can use true there since that's my preference.

Thanks again!

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

Lois, I added some bold/italic text to update my post hoping to address some of your questions, but ultimately, I would try and leave the other variables alone until you get it up and running and can then play with the rest if you wish.

Try to think of it this way, OpenDCT is for adding individual TUNERS to Sage, but XML is to fetch EPG for SOURCES (a source can have multiple tuners in this regard). For each tuner you add in SageTV, you will assign the XML EPG source for.

The plugin to use XMLTV must be the stuff from the first post in this thread, I can't remember any more.
XMLTVImportPlugin_2.11.zip

[LoisGNS]

Got partially there but hit a snag trying to set up epg data:
I have all of my sources defined into OpenDct.properties, and they are all listed as being on "HDMI" and on 127.0.0.1:9000
Problems:

1. I'm not getting a video preview, but I told it to continue anyway, since that was an option.
2. I found the screen for selecting the xmltv data, but after entering "00000" for zip code it says "please select your provider." I provided 8 xmltv.properties files, but only 6 are displayed.

So I picked the first one listed to configure - it also has the fewest channels. It seems stuck on a screen that says "please wait while the channel lineup is downloaded for ..."

How long is that supposed to take?

Clearly I've done something wrong!

I confirmed that I can watch a video by checking a file copied to one of the importedvideo folders. It plays just fine.

Here are some lines from my opendct.properties that may be relevant:

generic.pipe.device_names_csv=TVE1, TVE2, Pr1, Pr2, Pr3, Pr4, Sci, Amb, News1, News2, Tv1, Tv2, Tv3, Tv4, Ls2, Ls3, Fmus, Ls1

sagetv.device.2587278.device_name=TVE1
sagetv.device.2587278.encoder_listen_port=9000
sagetv.device.2587278.encoder_merit=0
sagetv.device.2587278.encoder_pool=generic_pipe
sagetv.device.2587278.exclusive_server_address=
sagetv.device.2587278.fast_network_encoder_switch=true
sagetv.device.2587278.last_channel=-1
sagetv.device.2587278.stopping_executable=
sagetv.device.2587278.streaming_executable=http\://192.168.2.160\:8089/devices/TVE-Comcast_SSO/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format\=ts -c copy -f mpegts -
sagetv.device.2587278.transcode_profile=
sagetv.device.2587278.tuning_delay_ms=0
sagetv.device.2587279.consumer=opendct.consumer.DynamicConsumerImpl
sagetv.device.2587279.custom_channels=
sagetv.device.2587279.delay_to_wait_after_tuning=0

The device_id shown by Channels for this source is "TVE-Comcast_SSO, and the ip address is correct. (The opendct plugin put in all the extra slashes where they wouldn't otherwise be).

Here's the applicable xmltv file:

provider.name= TVE-Comcast_SSO
configurations= TVE-Comcast_SSO
provider.id=301 
xmltv.files= http://192.168.2.160:8089/devices/TVE-Comcast_SSO/guide/xmltv?duration=1209600
xmltv.channel.display-name.ShortNameIndex=2
xmltv.channel.display-name.LongNameIndex=1
xmltv.channel.NumberTag=lcn
xmltv.channel.NumberTagIndex=1
xmltv.channel.IconDownload=true
title.add.year=false
episode.name.add.episode.number=true

I used your examples and plugged in the xml info Channels gave me. This happens to be one of the properties file Sage isn't listing, but the others all follow the same model.

Ideas?

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

I assume you have already installed the XMLTV plugin from the first post in this thread.

When adding a tuner to Sage:

1. Setup > Setup Video Sources > Add New Source > scroll down to select tuner from list (look for the names you identified in OpenDCT.properties).
2. On the next screen, select HDMI and immediately select 'continue' without waiting for a preview, then 'continue' to next screen.
3. On the next screen, select 'Don't configure tuning.'
4. On the next screen, select 'Use EPG Plugin (XMLTV or other) Guide data with this Source)'
5. I enter the valid 5-digit zip code for my territory, although I'm not sure it matters in this case.
6. The next screen shows a list of all the custom XML files that you created. If it doesn't show all of them, you have some error in filename or file contents syntax. One error is not enumerating the '301' value up 1 (to 302, 303, etc.) for each consecutive XML source file you add.
7. On the next screen I select 'Extended basic service' but again it may have no affect on this.
8. At this point it should start to download Channel Numbers/Channel lineup from your Channels DVR server. I also had it stall on this one time, so I deleted the tuner and started again. One time that happened, I just backed out of the stalled screen, then came back in to the new tuner and was able to see the channel list, but I'm not sure all the EPG data came down correctly from Channels DVR.
9. After correctly downloading channels and guide data, it should take you directly into Channel Setup where you can enable/disable channels, and finish channel setup.

Other potential things to investigate:

1. If you have Channels DVR running on a different computer than SageTV, make sure you have the correct IP addresses identified for the computer that is running Channels DVR, and that a firewall on the Channels DVR computer isn't blocking a port request from the SageTV computer (maybe just disable the firewall entirely for testing purposes).
2. Using a browser, double check the exact device name: TVE-Comcast_SSO http://192.168.2.160:8089/devices
3. Verify that your Comcast source is working correctly in Channels DVR by checking that the guide is fully populated for the channel range that you identified when you added the source (for at least 14 day typically), then test a few channels in Channels DVR.
4. In my XML files, episode.name.add.episode.number=false (probably has no impact)
5. My streaming executable in OpenDCT uses ffmpeg: sagetv.device.2003858.streaming_executable=C:/ffmpeg/bin/ffmpeg.exe -i http://192.168.254.241:8089/devices/M3U-ADBBridge/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format=ts -c copy -f mpegts -
   Not sure how the syntax may change without it.

[LoisGNS]

Thanks for the detailed notes. Here is what I'm seeing:

Adding Tuner section:

1. I see the full list expected
2. yes
3. yes
4. yes
5. I used 00000 as I saw in the instructions, but I could try my real zipcode
6. I just verified that my .properties files have different numbers for provider.id, and that my xmltv.properties shows the same filenames that match the ones I created. I noticed that my xmltv.properties ends with a crlf, and the example one doesn't, so I removed the crlf.
   Restarted everything after making the various changes, and now I see all of the configured EPG sources (also changed to my actual zipcode).
7. I don't get a screen where I would enter "extended basic..." or anything else. After making the changes I described I get the screen about extended basic & picked that one.
8. Every one I tried stalled and I backed out. On retry, it downloaded after just a minute or 2.

The other things to investigate:

1. Currently have Channels and the instance of Sage I'm testting OpenDCT with on the same computer, though I will likely move the OpenDCT configuration over to my main Sage server if I can get it working while on the same computer as Channels.
2. I copied all of the DeviceIDs directly from the /devices screen into the .properties files. I just checked http://192.168.2.160:8089/devices/TVE-Comcast_SSO/guide, which is in my xmltv_TVE-Comcast_SSO.properties file, and it displays guide data. (Haven't tried the others yet - if I can get one working to start, any changes I need to make should be more clear).
3. I checked the Channels guide for this source and have data through May 27. Tested a few channels in Channels, and they're ok.
4. Leaving add.episode.number=true for now, since you doubt it matters for this
5. Ah I see I managed to omit the reference to ffmpeg in my streaming_executable entries. I'll correct that & retry. That could be a big part of the problem! I also see that I may have some devices listed twice, with different numbers. Should I do something about that?

So now I got to the channel lineup screen am waiting for "loading preview" to complete. I'm not sure how long it should take, but it seems to be hanging on every channel I try. I exited that and looked at the program guide I now see. It's partially populated (probably will populate more fully in time?), but when I try to watch anything I get "no signal," which is consistent with preview not working. I guess that suggests an issue with my ffmpeg setup? Ideas of more things to check into on that front?

So at least I'm making some progress, but still have more to do to get this working.

[LoisGNS]

Update, I scrolled up and found your post about using curl instead of ffmpeg. I changed that on the source I've been testing, and it's working. I'll need to go through & see which channels actually work and turn off the others, since the general list likely includes many that aren't on my plan. Not sure what's the easiest way to test that besides just walking through them. Will want to turn off the non-working ones in Channels proper also. And I think the lack of epg data for some channels was just my HDHR tuners, which I should really just turn off on this server, since they are fairly weak as tuners and are used when necessary by my main server. Or I could sign them into Schedules Direct, but am avoiding having too many servers pulling data there for fear of lockouts.

[LoisGNS]

I was able to get my TVE tuner & epg working, but neither PrismCast nor any of the FAST Channels are working. In both cases, it gets stuck on "wait while the channel lineup is downloaded." You mentioned that happened once for you but it worked after that? I've retried Prismcast & some of the FastChannels several times, and they keep stalling. Am I missing some setting that is different for the TVE source vs the M3U sources (everything else)?

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

Here are the file contents of prismcast.bat in the node.js directory per the post above (exact copy-paste):

@echo off

rem Ensure this Node.js and npm are first in the PATH
set "PATH=%APPDATA%\npm;%~dp0;%PATH%"

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
pushd "%~dp0"

rem Figure out the Node.js version.
set print_version=.\node.exe -p -e "process.versions.node + ' (' + process.arch + ')'"
for /F "usebackq delims=" %%v in (%print_version%) do set version=%%v

rem Print message.
if exist npm.cmd (
echo Your environment has been set up for using Node.js !version! and npm.
) else (
echo Your environment has been set up for using Node.js !version!.
)

popd
endlocal

rem If we're in the Node.js directory, change to the user's home dir.
if "%CD%"=="%~dp0" cd /d "%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%"

@echo on

prismcast

[LoisGNS]

@echo off

rem Ensure this Node.js and npm are first in the PATH set "PATH=%APPDATA%\npm;%~dp0;%PATH%"

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion pushd "%~dp0"

rem Figure out the Node.js version. set print_version=.\node.exe -p -e "process.versions.node + ' (' + process.arch + ')'" for /F "usebackq delims=" %%v in (%print_version%) do set version=%%v

rem Print message. if exist npm.cmd ( echo Your environment has been set up for using Node.js !version! and npm. ) else ( echo Your environment has been set up for using Node.js !version!. )

popd endlocal

rem If we're in the Node.js directory, change to the user's home dir. if "%CD%"=="%~dp0" cd /d "%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%"

@echo on

prismcast

I was looking for my Startup folder and found this to be helpful - also for hopefully making opendct start up automagically:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configure-startup-applications-in-windows-115a420a-0bff-4a6f-90e0-1934c844e473

I also located a prismcast.cmd file in %appdata%\npm. I made a shortcut for that and put it in my C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder (which is to start up for all users, which I think is preferable in my case since I run this box remotely). I then restarted and I think it's finally working.

I also used shell:appsfolde (from the same Microsoft post) to find the openDCT start service, and put that in the startup folder as well.

Upshot: now I can be reasonably certain that Channels (already running as a service), OpenDCT, and Prismcast all start up when the computer does instead of needing to be started manually.

Now if I could just get Sage to recognize Prismcast's stream and epg data, I'd be thrilled. Getting FastChannels imported as a source would also be nice, but Prismcast is more important for my current needs - I can let Channels handle the Fastchannels stuff, which is somewhat more of a curiosity than something important at the moment.

[TGsell1]

Thanks for the detailed description.  Hope to try this out soon.  Sent from my iPhoneOn May 16, 2026, at 9:47 AM, KryptoNyte-Sage ***@***.***> wrote: PrismCast is a background app (or service) that runs to automate launching of a Chrome window (customized with a capture plugin), logging into you paid streaming service, and capturing [and encoding] media from the Chrome session saving it as a file on your computer. It appears to be running in native Windows (but in a Node.js container, so you'll need to install Node.js for Windows), Mac OS, and Docker. It integrates with the Channels DVR software (at this time, you must be running Channels DVR to get it to work) and the setup for this integration is described here (scroll down for description and instructions): https://github.com/hjdhjd/prismcast PrismCast then becomes a source (tuner) in Channels DVR. More specifically, it becomes one source with potentially many tuners if your streaming service and the computer it runs on can capture multiple streams simultaneously (I had 8 or 9 programs 'recording' at the same time on a Core i5-11400, but in practical use I would say 4 or 5 would be the max). Once we got this up and running with Channels DVR, we then access the PrismCast 'source' and share it with SageTV using the instructions in this thread (with OpenDCT and the XMLTV plugin). It's a round-a-bout way of bringing streaming services (and EPG guide data) into SageTV. Because the Chrome capture window(s) is also doing encoding, it will need some processor horsepower, especially if you were recording 3 or 4 channels simultaneously, and running live Comskip on those recordings. I had this running with Sage a few months ago but stopped using it because the encoding my server was doing was giving stuttering video results. Now Lois seems to be having trouble getting it to work at all and is asking the developer about it in the Channels DVR forums. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[LoisGNS]

I'm running on a Ryzen 5 5500 - don't know how that compares in power to Core i5-11400. I think I've tried (in Channels) 4 streams simultaneously and they came out ok.

My current p roblem is getting Prismcast to talk to Sage (or vice-versa). TvEverywhere is working in Sage via OpenDCT and the XMLTV plugin. Just in case I'm missing something that will be obvious to others, here are some pastes from what my opendct.properties.

sagetv.device.80463.device_name=Pr1
sagetv.device.80463.encoder_listen_port=9000
sagetv.device.80463.encoder_merit=0
sagetv.device.80463.encoder_pool=generic_pipe
sagetv.device.80463.exclusive_server_address=
sagetv.device.80463.fast_network_encoder_switch=true
sagetv.device.80463.last_channel=2
sagetv.device.80463.stopping_executable=
sagetv.device.80463.streaming_executable=curl -s http\://192.168.2.160\:8089/devices/M3U-Prismcast/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format\=ts

The last_channel setting seems to have autopopulated; its initial setting was blank iirc.

In place of the "curl" string I had tried the ffmpeg version that was posted - it made no difference to the results, which was a hang on reading the epg data.

This is what Channels shows under "devices"

Here's my xmltv_M3U-Prismcast.properties:

configurations=M3U-Prismcast
provider.name=M3U-PrismCast
provider.id=302
xmltv.files=xmltv.xml
xmltv.channel.display-name.ShortNameIndex=2
xmltv.channel.display-name.LongNameIndex=1
xmltv.channel.NumberTag=lcn
xmltv.channel.NumberTagIndex=1
xmltv.channel.IconDownload=true
title.add.year=false
episode.name.add.episode.number=false

The provider.id is a different number from the others I've used, so there's no collision there. I'm speculating that either this just won't work (though apparently someone had it working previously?), I have an error in my settings, or PrismCast needs some settings that are different from those for TV Everywhere.

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

Good news. I updated to the latest version of PrismCast this morning and fired it up again, configured a few channels and re-added it to Channels DVR. All of my OpenDCT stuff was still configured as well as the XMLTV setup, so I just added the tuner to SageTV and it worked immediately.

Just to clarify a couple things, the OpenDCT setup is what calls for and brings the actual stream in from the Channels DVR source. The XMLTV setup is what gets the guide data from Channels DVR. If you are getting guide data, but no stream, then it's likely something in the OpenDCT settings, or possibly the initial setup of PrismCast in Channels DVR. Additionally, in Channels DVR Source setup, I make sure to identify a starting channel number that doesn't conflict with some other series of channels already in Channels DVR (and SageTV).

A few things that came to mind this morning as I re-added PrismCast (to both Channels DVR and SageTV):

1. After getting PrismCast installed and provider & channels configured and confirmed working in the PrismCast Web UI, when adding the PrismCast Source to Channels DVR [Sources > Add Source > Custom Channels] there are only three things that I provide information for (nickname, URL, starting channel number):

2. Whenever you make any changes, or upgrade PrismCast, you'll need to reload the M3U in the Channels DVR Source > Manage > Reload M3U. When I had some trouble a few months ago, I was sure to just delete the PrismCast source entirely and start from scratch re-adding it to Channels DVR. After adding to Channels DVR, a temperature bar comes across the top of the 'Sources' screen in the Web UI showing progress of the EPG guide data download - usually give that another couple minutes after it's done downloading to settle before moving on to adding the Source to SageTV (Adding the source in Sage too quickly is possibly where gaps in guide data originate). Future Note: If you make changes to PrismCast in Channels DVR, I have found that I have to delete the source(s) in SageTV and re-add them to get these changes into Sage. It's cumbersome, but I think once you get it up and running there really isn't much need to change it.

3. To confirm the correct behavior of PrismCast, when mine starts up, I can watch it happen on the server. First there is a command window that appears:

Then a Chrome browser launches and after some preconfig by PrismCast, minimizes to the system tray. I can maximize that PrismCast Chrome window when testing, and watch it login and start showing/capturing a channel in a tab (and any simultaneous channels in more tabs). If you have Channels DVR setup correctly, you should be able to try and start, say, 2 recordings on the PrismCast source from the Channels DVR guide and watch this same activity on the server.

4. I don't believe this is an issue, but when troubleshooting last ditch efforts, I usually make sure that any filename (like the names of the XMLTV_name.properties files) don't have any strange characters, per my own recollections from 1990's era. If you're getting guide data at all, then this probably doesn't matter, but you do have dashes in your XMLTV filename. I have to believe in 2026 we have gone way past the days of 'underscores' only, but who knows.

5. Just a friendly reminder, you can't make changes to OpenDCT files or SageTV files while either is running or the changes won't take. You must shut down both apps (or services in my case), then make changes to any affiliated files, the restart those services to add sources.

The unfortunate part of this for me is that with my hardware (Core i5-11400, Windows 10 LTSC Enterprise) the Chrome capture results in video that is stutters so badly that it's virtually unwatchable.

[LoisGNS]

Thanks for all the notes. I'll try the upgrade after backing up whatever is backup-able in my current configuration just in case. Do you think it's necessary at this point to delete and re-add Prismcast as a source in Channels, or would reloading the M3U be adequate? Maybe the delete & re-add isn't a big deal, though and maybe it's cleaner that way? I've already made 4 (I think) Prismcast entries in my OpenDCT.properties file. Will I need to remove and regenerate them or just adjust the included URLs (if they change) - likewise in my XMLTV.properties?

Since I haven't yet gone through and disabled all of the Prismcast channels that aren't actually available to me (or of any interest), is it prudent to take care of that in Prismcast, Channels, or ok to let Sage do it? Maybe it doesn't matter much, but no sense thinking a show of interest is available to record if it turns out it's on a channel that I can't receive.

Thanks for the reminder on shutting down the various apps/services before making changes. I've fiddled so much that I think I have that ingrained in muscle-memory by now, but reminders never hurt.

re your point #4, I wasn't getting anything at all except for TVE. All my xmltv.properties files are named according to the same pattern, and the one named xmltv_TVE-Comcast_SSO.properties works, so one named xmltv_M3U-Prismcast.properties should not be problematic because of the filename - just because of maybe needing the later Prismcast version. I wasn't sure the extent to which (if at all) the xmltv.properties file naming had to match the source names as provided by Channels, so I just used what Channels gave me. Maybe that only matters for the file contents.

Anyway, if you have further thoughts on my process-questions, let me know. I don't know if I'll try to make the changes tonight or wait for more advice from you first.

[LoisGNS]

Ok, I tried this: updated to Prismcast 1.0.3, removed/added the source in Channels, refreshed epg. Then I went to Sage to try again to add and it still fails in the same way. "Please wait while the channel lineup is downloaded for M3U-Prismcast..." that persists for a considerable time until I finally back it out.

Could you share the relevant parts of your opendct.properties & xmltv.properties for Prismcast? I keep fiddling with mine in hopes of making it work, but whatever I've got in there isn't working. Since you have it working, it must be possible and I must be doing something wrong.

[LoisGNS]

Out of curiosity, since I'm not getting jittery video out of Prismcast on my Ryzen 5500 (Windows 11), I looked for comparisons. This source: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/4807vs4233/AMD-Ryzen-5-5500-vs-Intel-i5-11400 says the Ryzen 5500 is only about 16% faster than your processor. I wonder if something else could be at work? Memory? I have 16GB; you didn't say how much you have installed. Provider in use? (I'm on Xfinity, I think you said you're on Youtube TV), OS? Hard to believe Win11 would be any faster than Win10 in this respect. GPU? Mine is NVidea GForce 960 4gb - so fairly old in the current scheme of things.

All that said, for some unknown reason, I'm having trouble with many Channels recordings today. A few days ago I did several simultaneous Prismcast recordings & they came out fine; today, they are barely tuning. I did move channel numbers around a few days ago; wonder if that messed anything up. May take more fiddling overall.

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

Lois,

Let's back up a bit. Download and install VLC on a PC if you don't already have it. Launch a VLC window and pull-down MEDIA > NETWORK STREAM and enter the following URL (modifying it for your server IP &, port, exact PrismCast tuner name in Channels DVR, and a valid PrismCast channel instead of 12005 in my example):

http://192.168.254.241:8089/devices/M3U-PrismCastYTTV/channels/12005/stream.mpg?format=ts%20-c%20copy%20-f%20mpegts%20-

When you launch this stream in VLC, does it load and start playing? Does the PrismCast browser window on the server launch the stream [visibly]?

[LoisGNS]

Yes, I see it in the PrismCast browser window and in VLC. (I had to change the %20 in your example to actual spaces). I have noticed that sometimes if I try to play channels in my regular Channels browser (i.e. http://192.168.2.160:8089/admin/guide/grid), I have to do it twice before it takes. It also takes a few seconds after I stop watching a Prism stream before the window closes. I recall reading that was a known issue and there were workarounds.

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

So the latest test confirms that the streaming executable (verbatim + channel number) from OpenDCT streams from Channels DVR correctly, and your OpenDCT streaming executable is basically identical to mine (from earlier posts). I can't explain why your timing out when loading channels, so I would keep deleting the new tuner in SageTV and re-adding until you get the channel setup from Channels DVR correctly. Beyond that, I don't know what else to test, except to start checking the SageTV logs to see if there is some other underlying problem.

Anyone else have any ideas?

[LoisGNS]

Nope. Not working, no matter what I try. I even pulled up another test server ("server 2") on another computer. It also fails, but in a different way. It, oddly, sees all of the sources configured in opendct.properties on the channels box ("server 1") that I've been trying to use, but won't actually set them up. It goes through the dialog and gets to a choice of basic/extended basic. I pick extended, and it immediately takes me to channel setup - except there are no channels there. On Server 1, the "wait while channel lineup is downloaded" screen just stays up forever.

I think I figured out the difference between the 2 failure modes, though. I had xmltv 3.1 on Server 1 ( endless loading) and 2.1 on Server 2 (fast load, no channels). I put 2.11 on Server 1 and now get the fast load, no channels behavior.

When I rechecked that log after changing versions (yes, I stopped Sage Service in between), I get this:

19-05-2026 23:28:03,485 Version 2.11
19-05-2026 23:28:03,485 updateGuide(399, EpgPlugin[UnicastServerRef [liveRef: [endpoint:192.168.2.160:3066,objID:[6955ea39:19e436ba998:-7fff, 1859976958201936545]]]])
19-05-2026 23:28:03,486 java.lang.ClassCastException: uk.co.mdjcox.epgplugin.EpgPlugin cannot be cast to sage.EPGDBPublic2

I don't know what that means, except that I see the same error in Server 2. So next, I put version 3.1 on Server 2. Now, I get a different message in xmltv.log:

xmltv.files=http://192.168.2.160:8089/devices/M3U-PrismCast/guide/xmltv?duration=1209600
19-05-2026 23:35:16,828 Parseing http://192.168.2.160:8089/devices/M3U-PrismCast/guide/xmltv?duration=1209600
19-05-2026 23:35:16,856 java.io.FileNotFoundException: http://192.168.2.160:8089/devices/M3U-PrismCast/guide/xmltv?duration=1209600

So I tried copying the epg location into my browser. It initially wouldn't come up, but then did. I went into the xmltv.properties on Server 2 and changed duration=1209600 to 12096, and everything came in!!!

I then tried the same thing on Server 1, but no luck. Maybe if I keep fiddling with different duration values I'll find one that works. I tried going much higher and much lower. Maybe there's a sweet spot somewhere :) I wish I knew what the values meant.

But it's still an error that I don't know what to do with.

I looked in sage_0.txt (or whatever it's called) and didn't see anything obvious. XMLTV.error.log is completely empty. There is about 4K in xmltv.log, but I don't know how to interpret it.

[LoisGNS]

Just updating again. I've been able to get most of my Channels sources (including Prismcast and some, but not all, FastChannels feeds into my Server #2, but only TVE into Server #1. I'm beginning to suspect there is an issue with the Sage installation on Server #1 and that an uninstall/reinstall might be in order.

I'm discovering that there is an odd thing that happens when running more than one instance (on different servers on the same lan) of opendct: each sees the sources on the other one. I tried turning off opendct on server 1 to see if server 2 would fare better with one of the problem fastchannels feeds, but instead, none of the Channels tuners applied to Server #2 would function properly without having opendct on server #1 running.

Since I ultimately would want to link channels to neither Server 1 nor Server 2, but to my main Sage Server (let's call it Server 0), it might not be useful to keep Server #1 at all, but will I need to keep opendct running on it in perpetuity to make things work where I really want them to work, or would it work better to uninstall that incidence of Sage, shut down its OpenDCT and see what happens if I start fresh (after a full backup) on Server 0 with no other OpenDCT running. Maybe, since apparently instances of OpenDCT talk to one another in some way, I will need to keep opendct off on Server 2 while configuring Server 0 - and then (if everything - or enough things - work), shut down all other instances of opendct.

This is very puzzling!

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

When you added the XMLTV plugin to the server, did you follow the directions in the readme file?

1. Stop SageTV Server
2. Rename on add/modify/ xmltv_EXAMPLE.properties examples
3. Copy all files and folder contents(not folder) of folder SAGETV_SERVER_ROOT to SageTV folder. Only Jar and *.proerties are required if not compiling required
4. Add the following line in Sage.properties epg/epg_import_plugin=xmltv.XMLTVImportPlugin
5. Start SageTV Server
6. Monitor in server folder xmltv.log, sagetv_0.txt,Sage.properties. If epg/epg_import_plugin=xmltv.XMLTVImportPlugin is removed from Sage.properties something is installed not correctly
7. In SageTV guide setup use XMLTV with zipcode 00000. If ask for license use TRIAL

I recall when I copied the files from the ZIP file into my SageTV directory, I didn't do it all at once, I copied them in by directory.

[LoisGNS]

I think I followed all those steps, though it's possible that when experimenting with different versions of the XMLTV plugin I copied over different JARs without completely shutting down Sage & server. I did check xmltv.log and so no evidence of the plugin being missing - though I saw some other issues I've noted. I didn't check sage.properties after setting it up because I figured it wouldn't even bring up the option to use xmltv if it didn't know about it.

[LoisGNS]

Some lessons learned. I don't know if these will be applicable to others, but it's what I needed to do to get Channels to talk properly to my main Sage server, which is on a different computer than my Channels server:

OpenDCT has to be running on the Channels server - probably also on the Sage server. If it's stopped or otherwise not running on the Channels server, the tuner loads up ok and the epg loads up ok (still haven't made it work on the Sage server on the Channels box, but that wasn't the ultimate goal anyway and won't be unless I decide at some future point to consolidate both servers to the same box; I suspect there may be a problem on the Sage installation on the Channels box that might be fixed by a complete uninstall/reinstall).

So far, I have only set up TVE, and have remapped the channels I'm going to use to start at 300 instead of 6000 because I want to keep to 3 digits. I will probably set up the Prismcast channels to start at 400, and the FastChannels I want to send to Sage to start at 500. I will gradually enable Prismcast and FastChannels, and set up multiple instances of each of the channels channels to enable multiple simultaneous streams.

[LoisGNS]

Is there a particular reason why the ffmpeg command in streaming-executable is set to ts (as opposed, for example, to mkv, mpg, libx264, etc.? I find they all work equally well when used with VLC. Is one format more efficient than another?

[LoisGNS]

I finally figured out why the Prismcast epg wasn't loading properly. In my xmltv.properties file I had "MCU-PrismCast" where I should have had "MCU-Prismcast." Had no idea it was case-sensitive. I'm still having a problem where Prismcast doesn't start properly on boot, despite trying various things, including trying to set it as a service, putting the prismcast.cmd into my Startup folder, etc., etc. If I don't start it manually when I boot the server, it doesn't start, at least not fully.

I've moved to trying to attach Sage to my FastChannels sources, which work fine in Channels. In Sage, howver, while I can get the EPGs loaded, the streaming doesn't work. That is, I tune to a channel and get "no signal."

Here is the m3u from Channels:

http://192.168.2.160:8089/devices/M3U-FastChannelsForSage/channels.m3u?format=ts&codec=copy

And here is what I have in OpenDCT:

sagetv.device.2083684703.streaming_executable=C:/ffmpeg/bin/ffmpeg.exe -i http://192.168.2.160:8089/devices/M3U-FastChannelsForSage/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format=ts -c copy -f mpegts -

The m3u from Channels works ok in VLC, so the problem is just with Sage. What might I be doing wrong here?

[Ugadata]

My FFMPEG command line looks a bit different:

c\:\\\\ffmpeg\\bin\\ffmpeg.exe -i "http\://127.0.0.1\:8089/devices/TVE-DTV/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format\=hls" -c copy -f mpegts -

Modified with your settings:

c\:\\\\ffmpeg\\bin\\ffmpeg.exe -i "http\://192.168.2.160\:8089/devices/M3U-FastChannelsForSage/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format\=hls" -c copy -f mpegts -

The "slashes" need special handling, hence the extra slashes. Also the format coming from Channels is changed from TS to HLS.

Edited: put the command in "code" so the slashes would show up as they should

[LoisGNS]

I'm at my wits' end. I tried your command, and it made no difference. While I get TVE channels just fine using the original parameters, and Prismcast works when it feels like it - tonight it gives only audio, no video -the FastChannels channels, which were working for a while, have now all reverted to "no signal." I've also tried using "curl..." and a few other variants on ffmpeg I could find in the old forums. Everything works more or less as expected in Channels and in NextPVR, so it's just Sage with OpenDCT that I can't make coopoerate. And of course, having it integrated with Sage would be the most convenient setup.

I looked through the Sage logs and found this, but I don't know what that means I should do. It references "Mediafile failing verify," which seems like a problem, but I don't know what to do to fix it.

Thu 5/28 21:27:28.509 [Seeker@f00e4fe] MediaFile failing verify testFile=E:\sagevideo\MrBean-S01E13-S1E13LiveAction-48611166-1.ts isFile=true len=0 isTV=true isRecording=false
Thu 5/28 21:27:28.509 [Seeker@f00e4fe] Removing MediaFile because it failed verification:MediaFile[id=48703444 A[48611166,48611152,"Mr Bean",402007135@0528.20:58,30,T] mask=TV host=Mediabox4 encodedBy=FSage1 on 192.168.2.160:9000 Great-H.264 format=MPEG2-TS 0:00:00 0 kbps [] E:\sagevideo\MrBean-S01E13-S1E13LiveAction-48611166-1.ts, Seg0[Thu 5/28 21:27:05.841-Thu 5/28 21:27:28.048]]
Thu 5/28 21:27:28.510 [Seeker@f00e4fe] Seeker.destroyFile called for: MediaFile[id=48703444 A[48611166,48611152,"Mr Bean",402007135@0528.20:58,30,T] mask=TV host=Mediabox4 encodedBy=FSage1 on 192.168.2.160:9000 Great-H.264 format=MPEG2-TS 0:00:00 0 kbps [] E:\sagevideo\MrBean-S01E13-S1E13LiveAction-48611166-1.ts, Seg0[Thu 5/28 21:27:05.841-Thu 5/28 21:27:28.048]]
Thu 5/28 21:27:28.510 [PooledThread@551a3e8a] Saving properties file to C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\Sage.properties
Thu 5/28 21:27:28.511 [Seeker@f00e4fe] Added file to delete queue: E:\sagevideo\MrBean-S01E13-S1E13LiveAction-48611166-1.ts
Thu 5/28 21:27:28.513 [Seeker@f00e4fe] Deleted media segment file E:\sagevideo\MrBean-S01E13-S1E13LiveAction-48611166-1.ts dtime=3 len=0

It's fortunate that I have a good head of hair, because I'm pulling it all out trying to make this work.

[LoisGNS]

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

…

On May 27, 2026 12:57:05 PM EDT, Ugadata ***@***.***> wrote: My FFMPEG command line looks a bit different: c\:\\\\ffmpeg\\bin\\ffmpeg.exe -i "http\://127.0.0.1\:8089/devices/TVE-DTV/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format\=hls" -c copy -f mpegts - **_Modified with your settings:_** c\:\\\\ffmpeg\\bin\\ffmpeg.exe -i "http\://192.168.2.160\:8089/devices/M3U-FastChannelsForSage/channels/%c%/stream.mpg?format\=hls" -c copy -f mpegts - The "slashes" need special handling, hence the extra slashes. Also the format coming from Channels is changed from TS to HLS. -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #51 (reply in thread) You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Message ID: ***@***.***>

[KryptoNyte-Sage]

Lois, regarding starting PrismCast when the computer boots up, did you follow my instructions from this post, and the post right below that one?
#51 (comment)

[LoisGNS]

I did try that, but it didn't work for me. I thought I posted that at the time, but looking at my post, I mainly described some workarounds I'd tried: When that didn't work for me, I tried putting a shortcut to prismcast.cmd in my startup folder, and that sometimes worked & sometimes didn't. I may have also tried the updated instructions for setting it to start as a service. I thought I kept notes on all that but can't seem to find them in my masssive notes file, which I need to take some time to organize, as it's kind of a stream-of-consciousness document and catch-all at the moment.

What sometimes ha ppens is that it appears to start (I can open my link to it and it's there), but when I actually try to use it, watching/recording videos (even right inside Channels) it works sometimes and doesn't work other times. In those cases I stop the Prismcast server (which often requires using taskkill /pid...) and restart it from the command line. Just now, it started up fine from power-up and is now recording something via Channels. Last night I had to do the taskkill thing.

At some point, when I reconfigure some of my physical setup, I'll be in a better position to keep my Channels box running 24/7, which should reduce the problem, unless Prismcast needs to be periodically stopped to clear cache or something.

[Ugadata]

FWIW - I have Sage Server, OpenDCT, and Channels all on the same machine.
When I was first investigating using ChannelsDVR, I tried to load Channels on a separate machine and things didn't work very well. I also didn't know much about or why I would want Channels at the time.
That said, I don't see any reason they couldn't all be on a different device within the same network and still work.

I am still not using Prismcast, but I have had it working and Prismcast is on a separate machine from Sage, OpenDCT and Channels.

\ramble\
I chose DirecTV for its TVE support. I have found that it isn't the best choice for Prismcast. DirecTV (as well as some other streaming services) are limited to how many Tabs can be open with live video. For DirecTV it is one tab at a time. So for now I am living without using Prismacast.
\ramble off\

[LoisGNS]

My Sage Server is on Windows 8.1, so it can't run Channels, so it, Prismcast (via node.js), and FastChannels (via Docker, because that's the only way it can run, not because I have even the tiniest love for Docker) all run on a Win 11 box. I put a test Sage server on the W11 box, but it's had no end of trouble doing anything with OpenDCT on it, yet, paradoxically, if OpenDCT isn't running there, it doesn't seem to work properly on the Windows 8.1 box. I've tested & confirmed that situation multiple times, and it wouldn't surprise me of some odd contention between the two might be a source of issues.

I'm thinking of doing some additional fiddling with the Sage & OpenDCT configuration on the W11 box - primarily re-installing Sage, since it got broken when I installed a plugin that turned out to be no longer supported by the current Sage version and caused Sage to hang up. I fixed it (or thought I fixed it) by doing some manual edits to sage.properties, removing the offending .jar file, etc., but I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something and it's still broken somewhere.

The OpenDCT.properties on that machine also has some references to various streams I had tried & failed to set up, and so it's out of sync with the file on my Win 8.1 main Sage box. From what I've observed, that might matter. I might simply copy over the Win 8.1 opendct.properties to the W11 box, as well as the xmltv.properties files, to see what I can accomplish with everything on the same server. But that would be a secondary Sage server, and so I'd have to allocate recordings between servers manually, which is not much better than currently allocating some to Channels & others to Sage.

It's conceivable that I could update my Win 8.1 main sage server to Windows 10, and move all the Channels-related stuff there, but I'd need to do quite a bit of backing up and note-taking on potential contingencies before I messed with the main Sage box that way. Or I might eventually migrate Sage to the W11 box, but again, lots of carefull planning to make sure everything works as desired before doing so.

[LoisGNS]

Changing the topic slightly, so started a new post:

One other thing I've been considering is trying to point Sage to the location where Channels records on my W11 box as an import directory. Currently, Channels records to an existing Sage Import folder on my Windows 8.1 box, and secondarily to a larger drive on the W11 box. But I'd rather use the W11 box for main Channels storage. However, I can't get Sage to recognize the location to assign it to an import folder. I've tried:

• Mapping the network to its own drive letter. That lets Windows Explorer to see it fine, but not Sage.
• Using the setup dialog to add it. When I select "network" it finds the computer name but nothing inside it - sends an error message
• Also tried manually entering the location in various ways, including using the computer name & share name, the computer's ip address and share name, ip address and physical drive location - in each case it says it's "not found" and offers to create it (which I decline, since for all I know the attempt to create a folder could end up wiping it out, since it already exists).

I asked Perplexity.ai about this and it suggested a permissions issue: that if I had the Sage server run under the local account, it might more easily see the shared drive & folder. But I'm hesitant to try that because I have a recollection of it needing the system account for something - possibly USBUirt - to work correctly.

Anyway, as noted, tearing hair out.

[trk2]

I believe Sage requires a UNC path. Also I remember enabling SMBv1 (which is disabled by default in w11) to solve folder share issues but that may have been for an app other than Sage. Sorry to be so vague.

[LoisGNS]

I don't think SMB is the problem (based on a quick Google). My Sage win 8.1 box can see the drive I shared on the W11 box - it's just Sage that can't see it. I found in the Sage manual something about needing to run Sage service from a local account, not the system account, but I have a vague recollection that there was some reason to use a system account. It might have had something to do with HDHomeRun or USBUIRT. But I haven't been able to find any notes so far that would clarify that.

Essentially, I'm looking for more convenient ways to link Channels with Sage, given that so far I've only been able to get the TVE source to work well, with PrismCast & FastChannels working when they feel like it - and they haven't felt like it lately. For now, I've disabled their channels so I don't get lots of failed recordings that would have recorded fine on the non-Channels sources.

[Big-Swifty]

I had a similar issue years ago during a Sage reinstall...Sage wouldn't see networked shares. The following, taken from the old forums, fixed it for me (win7, not sure if it applies to win8)
click the start button and type secpol.msc in the search function.

Browse to "Local Policies" -> "Security Options". Now look for the entry "Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level" and open it. Click on the dropdown menu and select "Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated". Apply the settings.

In the Advanced sharing settings page of Network and sharing center, you need to have it set as Work/Home profile. Try

-Enable network discovery
-Turn on file and print sharing
-Turn off password protected sharing
-Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers

The other settings such as encryption I have set as use 128 bit encryption.

Please check related policies.

1. Enter “gpedit.msc” in the Start Search box.
2. Open “Computer Configuration”/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Settings.
3. In the right pane, enable the following policies:

Network access: Allow anonymous SID/name translation
Network access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users

Also please disable the following policies.

Network access: Restrict anonymous access to Named Pipes and Shares
Network access: Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts
Network access: Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts and shares

[LoisGNS]

Thanks, I'll check these out. Am I right in assuming that these are to be done on the Sage server, as opposed to the other computer whose drive I want to be visible to Sage?

[Ugadata]

I suspect it is like TRK2 mentioned - I don't believe Sage can use mapped drives ( drive letter:\ ex. C:\ or S:\sage-stuff ).

You need to use UNC or Universal Naming Convention for Sage to see across the network ( \\<server name/IP address>\<share name> ex. "\\192.168.1.3\sage-stuff" , "\\Sage-Srvr\sage-stuff").

In addtion, It appears you are running the Sage Service. Using the default SYSTEM account is fine as long as everything is local to the Sage server.

If you run the Sage service and want/need to access to Networked resources, You need to change the User Account that the Sage service is using. The account you use needs to have access to the server, machine, or device you want to share files from.